Hydroclimate Regulation in Forests: Biophysical Processes, Extreme Events, and Socioeconomic Impacts

Under intensifying global climate change, the increasing frequency of droughts and extreme hydroclimatic events poses severe threats to both ecosystems and socio-economic systems. As a pivotal land cover, forests provide value that extends far beyond carbon sequestration. A growing body of evidence indicates that forests, through biophysical processes such as evapotranspiration, actively regulate land-atmosphere exchanges of moisture and energy, subsequently influencing cloud formation, precipitation patterns, and regional climate stability. Nevertheless, this “hydroclimatic regulation” function of forests and its potential to enhance socio-ecological climate resilience lack systematic understanding and adequate quantification. This Research Topic seeks to advance integrated research in this emerging frontier.

The central goal of this Research Topic is to explore the core mechanisms through which forests act as active climate regulators, and to quantify the transformation of their ecosystem service functions into socio-economic benefits. To achieve this, we seek to convene interdisciplinary research that primarily:

• Elucidates Mechanisms: Uncovers the complete mechanistic chain from tree water physiology and canopy turbulence to atmospheric boundary-layer responses, thereby clarifying the core pathways through which forest biophysical processes regulate atmospheric humidity, clouds, and precipitation, ultimately influencing drought evolution and hydrological cycles.

• Quantifies Impacts: Builds upon the above mechanisms to quantify the impact of changes in forest cover and structure on regional hydroclimate, particularly the frequency and intensity of droughts and extreme precipitation events.

• Quantifying Economic Value, Informing Management Decisions and Analysing Management Outcomes: Develops innovative methodologies to conduct monetary valuation and cost-benefit analyses of forest-mediated hydroclimatic services (e.g., rainfall enhancement, disaster mitigation). It further explores feasible pathways to integrate this economic value into market-based instruments and policies, such as payments for ecosystem services and green finance, thereby providing a decision-making basis for nature-based climate risk management. Analysis of the effects of management strategies on ecological systems, such as hydroclimatic services.


Ultimately, this collection aims to provide a solid scientific foundation for nature-based solutions that encourages innovative studies that integrate multi-scale observations, interdisciplinary modeling, and socio-economic analysis. This Research Topic welcomes all article types—including Original Research, Reviews, Methods, and Perspectives—that span from mechanistic inquiry to applied assessment. The specific scope encompasses, but is not limited to, the following themes:

• Core Mechanisms: The coupling between forest evapotranspiration, canopy turbulence, and atmospheric boundary-layer processes.

• Functional Manifestations: Forest regulation on cloud physics, precipitation recycling, as well as droughts and extreme precipitation events.

• Monitoring & Modeling: Investigating forest-climate interactions using remote sensing, isotopic tracing, eddy covariance, and numerical modeling.

• Value Quantification: Methodologies and case studies for the economic valuation of forest-mediated hydroclimatic services (e.g., rainfall enhancement, cooling, disaster mitigation).

• Management Strategies; Applications and Outcomes: Adaptive forest management, ecological restoration, and conservation strategies designed to enhance climate resilience. Observed outcomes and impacts of these management strategies on various aspects of forest functions and services.

• Policy Integration: Exploration of integrating forest climate regulation benefits into policy instruments such as payments for ecosystem services and green finance.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Forest-atmosphere interactions, Evapotranspiration, Hydroclimate regulation, Climate extremes, Economic valuation, Forest management

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.